Patient Safety Specialist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Description:

Patient Safety and Clinical Governance

Provide specialised expert advice and leadership on patient safety, incident investigation, systems-thinking, quality improvement, and matters relating to a wide range of quality assurance topics.

Support and contribute to the development and implementation of the Trusts Patient Safety Incident Response (PSIRP) and Framework (PSIRF) to be used for responding to patient safety events and identification of areas for improvement.

Support and contribute to the development and implementation of a patient safety response plan for each Clinical Group and core service (cutting across all Clinical Groups) to appropriate respond to patient safety events within the Trusts overall quality framework.

Lead on specific Trust-wide patient safety incident investigations or high level serious incidents as required, with in-depth systems thinking investigations aligned to the trust patient safety incident response plan.

Identify patient safety concerns and themes from different patient safety data sources (such as incidents).

Lead on independent internal reviews of services in relation to patient safety and quality.

Provide expertise in planning quality improvement projects, using appropriate service improvement techniques to support departments in the identification of opportunities for improvement and the elimination of waste/non-value.

Ensure regular analysis and review of trust incident data to actively seek areas for improvement.

Monitor achievement of key patient safety quality indicators, prospectively highlight areas of potential concern for clinical service and/or Trust compliance.

Advise and assist clinical services and corporate departments in the development of improvement methodologies to improve patient safety.

Identify learning opportunities that will arise from all aspects of quality and assurance.

Make recommendations, provide expert advice, prepare and present reports/briefings for safety as required.

Provide, receive and present highly complex, sensitive or contentious information in clear and readable format on a range of patient safety matters.

Use and apply motivational and negotiating skills to encourage collaborative working to improve services performance where there may be resistance to change.

Patient Safety Training, Analysis and Information Resources

Provide, receive and analyse highly complex, technical, sensitive and contentious information (including statistical data) and translate as required to ensure comprehensive understanding across the Trust.

Support the Clinical Group Patient Safety teams to develop and deliver clinical governance programmes to maintain and improve the quality of patient care through quality improvement projects.

Support the development and implementation of the long-term strategic plan for patient safety training and education, ensuring the right staff receive appropriate training on patient safety in-line with the national patient safety syllabus and partner organisations.

Support the development and delivery of training and formal teaching on patient safety, investigations, after action reviews, quality improvement and human factors and ergonomics (system-thinking) for the Trust and wider clinical governance teams.

Support the maintenance of the Trusts patient safety Best Practice webpages and clinical resources database, ensuring best practices is shared across the Trust.

Attend and support the Trust Risk and Assurance Committee and other senior Trust-wide sub-committees and working groups as appropriate, ensuring effective dissemination and co-ordination of patient safety information and assurance from these groups.

Prepare and present regular progress reports on quality improvement, patient safety and best practice as required.

Communicate pro-actively with Trust staff, including clinical staff, patient safety, risk management, directorate management teams and Clinical Groups.

Provide and receive complex and/or sensitive information orally, electronically, in writing in a range of formats and manage effective communication at all levels of seniority.

People and Project Management

Line manage the Patient Safety Managers, Patient Safety Officer and Patient Safety Co-ordinator within the Quality and Assurance Directorate, to support, motivate and develop staff within the department and more widely in terms of quality assurance Trust-wide.

Deputise for the Trust Senior Patient Safety Lead as required.

Ensure that staff are trained, supervised and appraised appropriately to equip them to carry out their work effectively and efficiently.

Build and develop key relationships and consult and maintain networks internally and externally.

Support the delivery of a range of initiatives and projects arising directly and indirectly from the departments field of expertise, mainly Trust-wide and via co-ordination and co-operation with clinical directors, clinical leads, the patient safety team.

Support and contribute to the research and development of the Trust patient safety strategy.

Support and give professional advice on policies adopted by the Trust in its delivery of healthcare activities and its compliance with the Health & Social Care Act, CQC and other, relevant national bodies in relation to patient safety and quality.

Support policy/service development by maintaining a comprehensive knowledge of emerging policies from government departments and other external bodies which may have an impact on healthcare services.

Plan and implement new ways of working and facilitate collaborative working within the Clinical Groups and across the Trust.

Named budget holder and financial approver for the patient safety specialist team, including the approval and oversight of financial spend in relation to externally commissioned patient safety investigations within the agreed budget.

As a specialist, responsibility and freedom to take action based on own interpretation of the clinical or professional policiesthat apply in area of specialism, advising Clinical Groups and Trust on how these should be interpreted and delivered.

Person Specification

Qualifications/ Education

Essential

• Masters level of education and/or relevant professional qualification
• Further qualification in statistical analysis, quality improvement, or risk management.
• Qualification or advanced training in patient safety incident investigation (human factors) and quality improvement methodologies

Desirable

• Member of relevant professional body or clinical background

Previous experience

Essential

• Experience in a patient safety or quality improvement role at band 7 or above
• Experience of delivering training to diverse teams or departments
• Experience of line management
• Experience of leading investigations and independent reviews (such as root cause analysis) to a high standard
• Experience of managing a range of simultaneous projects, preferably within an NHS quality or patient safety context

Desirable

• NHS experience in a senior quality, safety or quality assurance role
• Experience of developing policy for clinically related practices

Skills/ Knowledge/ Ability

Essential

• Proven leadership and management skills
• Good knowledge of the NHS and health related patient safety and quality regulatory activity
• Clear understanding of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy
• Good understanding of the principles and practice of clinical governance and patient safety, required outputs and their use to improve clinical practice
• Able to provide, receive and present highly complex, sensitive and contentious information
• Clear knowledge of the national patient safety requirements and standards in the NHS
• Understanding of, and commitment to, using comparative information to stimulate clinical quality improvement
• Able to negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues
• Ability to undertake internal investigations and independent reviews (such as root cause analysis) to a high standard
• Able to develop and use comparative information and statistical reports to stimulate clinical quality improvement
• Ability to devise and implement a rigorous and analytical approach to information collection and presentation
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight and often changing deadlines
• Leadership skills for direct line management
• Ability to work on own initiative and organise workload, allocating work as necessary
• Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues, and able to make sound judgement of when to escalate

Desirable

• Clear knowledge of systems thinking and management of quality information systems

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Guy's Hospital off-site

Great Dover Street

London

SE1 4YB

Employer's website

https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/careers/careers.aspx (Opens in a new tab)